When Tragedy Hits
by mzfaithlehane
Summary: After Hotch doesn't get back from temporary assignment, Reid reminisces about the people he lost with an unlikely asset.


"Hey," Reid said as he was coming in. "where's Hotch?" The rest of them looked at each other, not knowing as well. It was the early morning, and Hotch could've been anywhere, so they shouldn't been worried. Right?

"Don't know, he should be back by now," JJ murmured. Garcia was looking on her tablet, Luke was finishing a crossword, Tara was typing something up, and Rossi was reading a book; just like normal. Except, something was in the air, and Reid could feel it somehow.

"Well, as least you don't have this weird horoscope," Garcia remarked out of nowhere.

"What did it say?" Tara sighed.

"I'm glad you asked," Garcia beamed. "It says 'you will meet someone when tragedy hits.'"

"What kind of horoscope is that?" Luke asked. They all shrugged like it was no big deal. Reid felt that something was wrong, but this was normal. After Morgan left, a few comments went around the air before complete silence. It was only exaggerated with Hotch's temporary duty assignment in Seattle. Reid shrugged and set his bag down and sat in his desk, picking up a quick read. If quick was about 650 pages or so. Just like normal.

* * *

As the team was investigating the scene, Bishop was jumpy. They had two new agents join, Nick Torres and Alex Quinn. Both were very competent at their jobs, and the teamwork was great, but the dynamics were very different, but not in the bad way. Less dysfunctional, a whole lot more cohesive. Except for Nick, he was a lone wolf compared to all of them, which made Gibbs and the rest of the team nervous, especially Bishop.

She didn't know why, but she felt that something was wrong. Abby read her horoscope and it said 'you will meet someone when tragedy hits.' Like that would ever happen. But what if it did? What was the tragedy? And if so, who will be affected? She decided to not look into it too much.

"Hey Bishop?" Quinn asked her, coming up with the camera.

"Yeah, what's up?" She turned around to see her softened face. Bishop had always admired her rather beautiful features, almost becoming jealous at them. Luckily, Quinn had a nice personality, tough but sociable. They became quick friends in about two weeks, which was a plus.

"I was wondering, don't you ever get a strange feeling around this place?"

"Not you too!" she playfully mocked.

"Well, I'm not kidding, this place gives me the creeps, you know?" She sighed and started to look around again, ignoring Quinn in the process. She rolled her eyes playfully and took pictures of the burned up plane. They had got a call of an airplane crash, containing at least one Navy lieutenant, one VP of a company, a security guard, and one federal agent. They didn't know which agency he was from, so NCIS had jurisdiction.

"What a sad day," Ducky remarked on at the bodies. "Especially for these unlucky ones." He was looking over the Navy lieutenant, who's body had only been half-burned in the crash, as with the VP and the guard. The other one wasn't so lucky, with the agent having at least three-quarters of their body burned badly. Quinn and Nick took pictures each of the bodies, looking over them with quiet sadness. _Sad day indeed,_ Bishop thought to herself. Gibbs came up with a hardened expression, very typical of him.

"What do we know?" he grunted.

"Well, one of them is Navy Lieutenant Kara Brooke while the guard is Peter Woods. This one over there," He pointed to the man on the right. "is Senior VP James Moore of Starling Tech. They were heading back to DC from Seattle with a federal agent, but he or she is too burned up for positive recognition," McGee stated as Gibbs was coming up.

"Torres," he stated back.

"No evidence anywhere that would indicate that this was in purpose. Other than the gas tank, there's nothing really."

"Huh, this is interesting," Jimmy remarked when he was feeling the agent's front pocket.

"What is it Jimmy?" Quinn asked. He took out a wallet, but upon further inspection, it was actually a badge. He handed it to Bishop, who opened it up. When she saw the picture, she was surprised on who she saw. Bishop stared at it for a hard two minutes before Gibbs interrupted her.

"Bishop, who is it?"

"Uh, this is surprising. Tim, you said that there was a federal agent on that plane right?" He shook his head slightly, not knowing where she was going.

"Then rule 38 comes into play." She showed the badge to the others, taking them all by surprise. "This is Aaron Hotchner of the BAU."

* * *

Everyone was working on paperwork, as usual. It was a slow day and nothing really ever came in. The whole team wasn't worried about a thing, that is until she came in. Reid was looking over another file, seeing Harper Dearing on it. NCIS took that case, and from what he remembers, he managed to blow up the whole building. The BAU had heard about it, but they had a case with the Silencer, so they couldn't help. It was strange however, seeing that case in his pile. It really shouldn't be here; it should've been in the archives instead. He wheeled over to JJ's desk, taking her by surprise.

"Hey," he simply said. She put down her file and looked at him funny.

"What is it Spence?" He showed her the file while she looked through it with wide eyes.

"How did this get here?"

"I have no clue, but whatever it is; it has to be a coincidence, right?" She just shrugged and moved on to another file. A few moments later, a young blonde showed up with a somber expression. The team looked up while took out something.

"Excuse me," Rossi said to the girl as he was coming up. "do you need anything?" She flashed her badge to him, showing that she was a federal agent.

"Special Agent Bishop, I'm from NCIS. Do you know where the current unit chief is?" They all looked at her with confused expressions, baffled at the fact that she asked for their unit chief.

"No, but I'm SSA David Rossi, do you know anything about our unit chief," he said quietly, anticipating the bad news. The rest of the team came up, wanting it not to be the news that they were looking for. Bishop had hesitated, not wanting to tell the news to an already broken family. She can see their faces, all looking at her with hard stares, and she knew that she had to tell them.

"I'm so sorry but..." She paused to give herself a moment. "but unfortchanately, your unit chief Aaron Hotchner was in a plane crash. There were no survivors and it seemed to be an accident." Garcia had the biggest shock in her eyes and started to completely break down in JJ's arms, who was struggling to keep her own tears at bay. Tara had to go back into her chair and sunk back down, as did Luke. In the short time that they knew him, they both thought that Hotch was invincible. This both took them by surprise.

Rossi was starting to break up as well, knowing Hotch the best out of all of them. He was devastated at the fact that Aaron Hotchner, BAU Unit Chief, father, and dedicated agent was now gone. Reid was something different however. He looked indifferent, which made Bishop concerned all of the sudden. She didn't know him, but she felt something odd in her gut. Reid took off into the hallway, with Bishop following him.

* * *

Bishop managed to find Reid by the wall, representing the agents they had lost within the years. Reid was looking at it with dark eyes, which made her wonder, _Why is life so cruel to so many people?_ She came up to him, wary about what she was going to say next.

"Dr. Reid?" she quietly asked, hoping not to agitate him. He turned to her, holding back tears in his eyes, not knowing what to say. It was no shocker that he was shocked by his own leader's loss, but she saw another feeling in his eyes. It wasn't anger, or regret, or even resentment.

"Yeah?" he dryly said back. She then got a full look of his whole face. She then saw it. The same feeling that she saw in McGee, Abby, Ducky, Jimmy, Vance, Gibbs, and even herself. It was emptiness. The dark abyss of a place that people go to when they have nothing else. Her emptiness was only a foot deep; his was a mile deep, almost like he was trying to drown himself.

"I know I shouldn't be saying this, but are you okay?" He started to pace back and forth, not knowing why this woman, a woman he barely met, was asking him that. Bishop wanted to come up to him and say something, but she knew to be careful, as he was already unstable. He then turned back to her with something else in his eyes.

"You really want to know? Well, let's see, my mom is a psycho, my dad walked out on me, I got tortured, kidnapped, died, resuscitated, shot, and developed a drug addition, for starters. And you want to know the worst part; everyone around me is disappearing on me, like it's no big deal!" He started to get even more angry with each word he said. "Who's next, huh? JJ, or Rossi, or Garcia? You know what, let's just let everyone leave! That way the prodigy kid can just stay here, all alone," he snarled to her.

Bishop remembered something in her pocket, but decided to keep it for later. She decided instead to just come up to a very angry Reid quietly, deciding just to let him breath for awhile. She never remembered a day that she became so angry like that, so bitter, so cold.

"You aren't the only one that has dealt with loss before Dr. Reid."

"What do you mean by that?" he mumbled.

"I was NSA before this, and let me tell you, I was very sheltered from the world. When I joined NCIS, I didn't know that with the job came with all of these new changes, including loss. Besides the fact that I lost my husband, I dealt with the loss of many people, including one of my best friends Tony DiNozzo."

"Did he die?" Reid uttered to the petite woman.

"No, but one of the biggest things was that he had a secret daughter that no one really ever knew about. When he did, Tony also lost his one true love Ziva. He realized that he couldn't handle the job and a new daughter he had no idea how to take care of. He resigned from the agency and went on to find some answers in Israel. We all knew that he was leaving, but when he did, it was like he died. All of us had this sense of mourning and that really hit me, as I realized that I never truly dealt with grief before. You get what I'm saying?" Reid understood what she said and noticed some of the disturbing similarities with Morgan.

"I know what you're saying because I also had a friend that left in the same way as well. Not the secret daughter sort of thing, or the true love dying, but just the fact that the both of them decided to leave because of a new family. I have dealt with loss before, but it still hurts every single time, and I hate it." He felt remorse for the huge hit of news that just happened, but every time, he bounced back. Well, not this time, as Bishop could tell. She slipped something into his hand, which looked like a letter. Bishop stepped back in order for Reid to fully absorb the letter.

 _Spencer,_

 _If you are just reading this, it probably means that have left suddenly and all of you have no idea why. Please do not take this the wrong way, but I am leaving the BAU and the FBI behind once and for all. Jack is getting older and I'm not getting any younger, and with recent events, I don't think it is wise to keep going with the job. And that is another problem as well, I keep thinking of the job. After Haley's death, I kept putting my career first instead of taking care of Jack._

 _It was not fair to him to see his dad go and not come back for a week or so. It wasn't fair to Haley and I did realize that, but Jack was another story. I couldn't keep pushing him back just for the sake of my BAU family. Jack is becoming a pre-teen now, and if I don't do something, he probably won't forgive me, ever. Which is why I made the decision to resign as soon as I land from Seattle. I'm going to take Jack somewhere else, just until things settle down. Just remember, I love-_

The letter ended right then and there, leaving Reid up to his own devices. He can only imagine what the crash was like, and he just didn't want to think about it. Hotch was going to resign, and he understood the toll of the job that was taking up Hotch's life right now. Reid never knew that Hotch was slowly becoming detached from the job; he always kept such an impassive look, it was hard to tell. Bishop was heading out of her way when Reid managed to stop her.

"Where did you find this?" he questioned her suddenly.

"It was by the plane, right when it landed. After we got a DNA conformation, it was unlikely, but Vance decided that I should should take it to you guys. It seemed important and with the news-" He suddenly hugged her tightly, not knowing what he was doing, but decided to anyway. She didn't know what to do, but decided to hit him back, not know where this was going.

"What was this for?"

"I don't know, but whatever it is," He started to tear up on her shoulder. "I just wanted to say thank you for that."

"For what?" she asked while tearing up as well.

"For giving me this. I don't know why, but I wanted to just say that." He started to bury his face into the crook of her neck, crying on her shoulder. She didn't know why, but tears decided to fall as well. The two held each other in the hallway wanting not to let go. Maybe that horoscope was true after all.


End file.
